217 whence issue the three maidens, Urda, Verdandi, and Skulda. These maidens appoint the time that all men have to live, and are called Nornies. They take water each day from the well and pour it upon the Ash, lest its branches should perish. This water has so great virtue that whatever comes within the well remains white as the membrane of an egg. The dew which falls from Yggdrasil’s branches is called honey-dew, and on this bees love to feed. Two birds, called swans, were born in Urda’s well, and from them were produced all birds of that species. I know where stands an Ash, It is called Ygg-drasill, A lofty tree, moistened With white waters; Thence comes the dew, Which falls in the valleys, Ever green, it grows Over Urda’s well. Thither come the maids Who know much, Three from the hall Which lies by the tree; Urda they called the first; Verdandi the second; They scored on the shield Skulda, the third:

218 They gave laws, They decreed life, To the children of men They deal out fete.                        Voluspa. On the branches of the Ash sits an eagle who knows many things, and between his eyes is a hawk called Vedurfolgner, or the storm-damper. A squirrel, Ratatoskur (rain and snow-shower), runs up and down the tree, sowing strife betwixt the eagle and the serpent Nyd-hoggur. Four stags are constantly devouring the branches and roots of the Ash. The Ash Yggdrasill (which word has been interpreted the dew-dropper, or bearer, or from another root the bearer of the thoughtful, an epithet of Odin, here put for heaven) is evidently a symbol of the earth. “Its branches,” remarks Magnussen, “which spread over the whole world, are the atmosphere. The eagle who sits upon them represents the storms. The hawk or falcon (storm-damper) was supposed to fly the highest of all birds, and was therefore the symbol of the calm æther. The four stags, according to Gräter, were Time. The squirrel, whose name shews that he was the emblem of rain and snow, which falls from the air on the earth and the deep, and is thence drawn up again, is in northern latitudes white in winter and grey in summer. The Nornies, Urda,

219 Verdandi, and Skulda (or the past, the present, and the future), are not unfitly represented as preserving by their care the Ash from destruction. It is the same as the sacred tree of the Saxons, Irmensul.”1 Of the origin of the three Nornies nothing is told us; they appear to have sprung up with the tree itself. Their doom was irrevocable, their wrath announced death. Urda (or the past) was the chief amongst them, and her protection was very powerful. Besides her sacred well, she had the charge of Odreyrer, or the vessel of wisdom and poetry. Of Verdandi (the present) little is said in the Eddas. Skulda (the future) was the youngest of the three Nornies. In her book all events that were to take place were written, and she is represented as riding with two of the Valkyrs, Gudr and Rota, before the van of the battle, pointing out the warriors who were to be slain. The Nornies were said to weep over the fall of their favourites. The Gods themselves, who had but a dark foreboding of their destiny, used often to consult them. There were inferior Nornies, sprung some from the Aser, some from the Elves, some from the Dwarfs. It was the business of these to spin the 1 Magnussen.

220 thread of fate for new-born children, to aid women in child-birth, and some of them were always present to determine the destiny of the infant. The name of Nornies was given also to witches and fortune-tellers, and a bier was called “the Nornies’ stool.” It is now time to speak of the Alfer or Elves. They were of two kinds—the white, or light Elves, who were immortal, very beautiful, and of a beneficent nature; the Black Elves, often confounded with the Dwarfs, and who were subject to death. The Light Elves were under the sway of Freyr, the god of the sun, and were thought to give good crops, to preserve cattle from danger, or, if offended, to cause avalanches, conflagrations, &c. On this account sacrifices called Alfa-blot, were offered to them. They could assume all shapes, particularly those of four-footed beasts and birds, and used often to appear in dreams. It was believed that every man had his Elf or Norny, whose business it was to forewarn him of impending dangers, and to help him out of them when they arrived. The Elves were of various ranks; those of the highest took charge of men of distinction, the inferior ones of the lower orders of the people. The ancient laws of Iceland commenced by recommending mariners, on approaching the shore, to remove from their vessels such

221 figure-heads as represented dragons or other monsters, for fear of irritating or frightening away the good Elves. When a prince was unfortunate in war his Norny was said to have left him. The peasants in Denmark and Norway still believe in the existence of Elves, and in fact these minor deities continue to this day to occupy no unimportant place in the superstitions of all the people of Gothic descent. The Swedes still class them into bad and good. The latter reside in the air, frolic on the sward, or sit on the leaves of trees: the former dwell under ground, and bring with them sickness and ill-luck. As the Elves may be considered intermediate beings between the Aser and men, so the Dwarfs seem to occupy the same position between men and the Giants or evil spirits. These pigmy deities are often confounded in the Eddas, although their natures were essentially different. The Dwarfs were originally engendered, like maggots, in the dead body of the giant Ymer, but at the command of Odin received the human shape and reason. They are represented as deformed, little men, with huge oblong heads and flat noses. Their dwelling-places were in the earth and in stones, and four of them, whose names were East, West, North, and South, were placed by Odin at the four corners of heaven, where they rule over

222 the four winds. They were a bustling industrious race, loving and highly skilled in all mechanical arts, particularly turning and smith’s work. Odin’s spear, Thor’s hammer, Sif’s hair, Freya’s golden chain, the ring Drupner, the ship Skidbladner, and many other masterpieces, were the productions of their skill. They knew also how to cut and explain Runes, to interpret the dreams of the gods, and could render themselves invisible or appear as spirits to men. Full many a cunning work, In cavern smithy wrought, Gauntlet and helm and dirk, To Asgard’s sons they’ve brought. A dwarf, was Brokur hight, Thor’s matchless hammer gave, Breathes not, I trow, the wight Its desperate swing might brave; The like his girdle rare, And Odin’s spear and ring, Freyr’s ship, and Sif s gold hair, And many a costly thing.                            Oehlenschläger. Like all other beings who dwell under the earth, they could not endure the light of the sun, but if surprised by it were immediately converted to stone. Two of them are called in the Edda Ny and Næ (the increase and wane of the moon), and

223 the names given to them in the Voluspa are, for the most part, indicative of elementary qualities; for example—wind, blast, gleam, light, day-finder, frost-giver, sleep-giver, ice-berg, dropper, &c. Their chief was Modsognur, and Durinn the second. At Ragnarokur the Dwarfs take no part in the contest, but are represented as standing at the entrance of their caves, weeping and wringing their hands. Their general character is, however, cruel and vindictive. The belief in them’still lingers in the North, especially amongst the Norwegians and Icelanders, with whom all rare natural productions are yet called “Dverg-smidi” (Dwarfs-smith’s work), and the echo “Dverg-mal” (the Dwarfs’ song), from the superstitious belief that they thus answered the questions of mortals. It appears, in fact, that ancient Scandinavia was scarcely less thickly peopled with subordinate elementary deities than Greece herself. They had a great variety of names, and were believed to exist in the sea, waterfalls, rivers, fountains, woods, meadows, mountains, caverns, &c. To use the words of Finn Magnussen: “Millions of Light Elves await only a signal from Freyr to drive from the sleepy earth the dark genii of night; Odin’s Valkyrs hover over the battle field, gleam in the

224 Aurora Borealis and in portentous meteors, or come to the aid of warriors in danger of shipwreck; Njord’s daughters play on the billows, in the midst of tempests; mermaids and mermen and various kinds of water-spirits people the ocean; the Black Elves dwelt in trees and mountains; the taciturn Dwarfs with hammer and apron smelted gold and precious stones in the bowels of the earth.” Every waterfall, spring and river had its presiding Norny, or spirit; some male some female. One of the most skilful of the Dwarfs was Brokur or Brokkur, with whom Loke once wagered his head, that Brokkur and his brother Sindri could not produce three such masterpieces of art as Sirs golden hair, which grew on her head like natural hair:2 the ship Skidbladner, which, whenever its sails were set, was sure of a fair wind, and at the same time that it was of sufficient size to hold all the gods with ease, might, if necessary, be taken to pieces and put in the pocket; and, lastly, Odin’s famous sword Gugner, which had never been known to fail him who used it. All these had been made by the sons of the Dwarf Ivallda, at the request of Lok, who having for a jest cut off Siff’s hair, could only escape 2 Vide page 228.

225 Thor’s vengeance by promising to obtain for her new hair of gold. Brokkur accepted the wager, and the two brothers set to work and made —first, the boar Gullin-börste; second, the ring Draupner, and lastly the hammer Miölner. The last had been nearly spoiled through Loke’s malice, who changed himself into a wasp and set himself upon Brok’s eye-brow whilst he was blowing the bellows, so that he was obliged to stop for the pain of the sting. It was agreed that Odin, Thor and Freyr should be umpires. Loke gave Odin the sword Gungner; to Freyr Skidbladner; and to Thor the hair for Sif, explaining at the same time the virtues of these rarities. Then came Brok with those he had forged. He gave Odin the ring, and said that every ninth night eight other rings, equally costly, woud drop from it. To Freyr he gave the boar, and explained that he might travel on it incessantly both through the air and over the sea, by day and by night, since it possessed greater strength than any horse, and that however thick or dark the weather might be, there would be always light enough from its bristles. To Thor he gave the bummer, and said that he might strike as vigorously with it as he chose, and whatever came in his way, without risking any hurt to it. To whatever distance or in whatever direction he should

226 throw it, it could not be lost; for let it fly ever so far it would return again into his hand.3 If he desired it, it would become so small as to enable him to put it in his pocket. The only blemish it had was that the haft was full short. The Aser decided that the hammer was the best piece of workmanship of all, since in it they had a great defence against the frost-giants, (Hrimthurser) and that Brokkur had won the wager. Loke offered ransom for his head, but the Dwarf would on no account agree to it. “Then lay hold of me,” said Loke: but so soon as he attempted to do so Loke was for away by means of his magic shoes. Brokkur then asked Thor to catch him, which he did. Brok was proceeding to cut off Loke’s head, when he called out to him to remember that only the head was his, and to take care not to touch the neck. We shall close this chapter with Oehlenschläger’s version of this fable, in which he has described at large the habits and residence of the dwarfs. 3 This appears rather at variance with the account in the preceding chapter of the loss of Thor’s hammer in his fishing adventure, but in that instance it must be remembered that it was Ran’s avidity which prevented the return of Miolner to its master, her net never failing to catch whatever fell into the sea.

227 ONE OF LOKE’S KNAVISH TRICKS, AND HIS PUNISHMENT. When Loke found that Thor had set; out on his second journey to Jotunheim without him, he was greatly mortified, for his vanity was gratified at being seen in company with the Thunderer. Being much addicted to roving about, he got weary of staying at home in Asgard, doing nothing, and lost his spirits and appetite. His chief amusement consisted in gibing and mocking the gods. At length for want of something better to do, and in order to be revenged on Thor for the slight he had put upon him, he resolved to make love to Sif, Thor’s wife. He accordingly watched her one day as she returned from the bath, and followed her to her crystal grotto, under Dovre. He there with his smooth tongue endeavoured to win her favour, seeking to persuade her that Thor did not know how to appreciate her beauty, but amused himself with fighting giants and fishing for whales, whilst she was left in solitude. Sif, however, repulsed his addresses with the utmost contempt, threatening him with her husband’s vengeance if he did not desist. Loke to be revenged on her took an opportunity, when she was asleep, to cut off her hair, which was celebrated for its beauty, and indeed had nothing to equal it in Asgard.

228 THE DWARFS. Loke sat and thought till his dark eyes gleam     With joy at the deed he’d done; When Sif look’d into the crystal stream     Her courage was well nigh gone. For never again her soft amber hair     Shall she braid with her hands of snow; From the hateful image she turn’d in despair,     And hot tears began to flow. In a cavern’s mouth, like a crafty fox,     Loke sate, ’neath the tall pine’s shade, When sudden a thundering was heard in the rocks,     And fearfully trembled the glade. Then he knew that the noise good boded him nought,     He knew that ’twas Thor who was coming, He changed himself straight to a salmon trout,     And leap’d in a fright in the Glommen.4 But Thor changed too to a huge sea-gull,     And the salmon-trout seized in his beak: 4 The Glommen is the largest river in Norway, clear and rapid. In its course of nearly three hundred English miles, from the mountains above Koraas, whence it springs to where it runs into the sea at Friedrichstadt, it forms from fifteen to twenty considerable waterfalls, of which the most remarkable are the Sarpen-Foss, near its mouth; the Mörch-Foss, and the Vammen-Foss.

229 He cried, “Thou traitor, I know thee well,     And dear shalt thou pay thy freak. “Thy caitiff bones to a meal I’ll pound,     As a mill-stone crusheth the grain.” When Loke that nought booted his magic found,     He took straight his own form again. “And what if thou scatter’st my limbs in air!”     He spake: “will it mend thy case? Will it gain back for Sif a single hair?     Thou’lt still a bald spouse embrace. “But if now thou’lt pardon my heedless joke,     For malice sure meant I none, I swear to thee here by root, billow, and rock,     By the moss on the Bauta-stone.5 “By Mimer’s well, and by Odin’s eye,     And by Miölner, greatest of all; That straight to the secret caves I’ll hie,     To the Dwarfs, my kinsmen small: “And thence for Sif new tresses I’ll bring     Of gold, ere the day-light’s gone, So that she shall liken a field in spring,     With its yellow-flower’d garment on.” 4 Bauta-stones were the stones placed over the tombs of distinguished warriors, and were held in great reverence amongst the Scandinavians, the more so in proportion to their antiquity, of which the moss on them was a sure token.

230 Him answer’d Thor: “Why, thou brazen knave,     To my face to mock me dost dare, Thou know’st well that Miölner is now ’neath the wave     With Ran,6 and wilt still by it swear?” “O! a better hammer for thee I’ll obtain,”     And he shook like an aspen-tree, “’Fore whose stroke, shield, buckler, and greave shall be     And the Giants with terror shall flee.” “Not so,” cried Thor: and his eyes flash’d fire,      “Thy base treason calls loud for blood; And hither I’m come, with my sworn brother Freyr,     To make thee of ravens the food. “I’ll take hold of thine arms and thy coal-black hair,     And Freyr of thy heels behind, And thy lustful body to atoms well tear,     And scatter thy limbs to the wind.” “O spare me, Freyr, thou great-souled king!”     And, weeping, he kissed his feet. “O mercy, and thee I’ll a courser bring,     No match in the wide world shall meet. “Without whip or spur round the earth you shall ride;     He’ll ne’er weary by day nor by night; He shall carry you safe o’er the raging tide,     And his golden hair furnish you light.” 6 Every thing lost at sea was said to go to Rar represented as being as avaricious as she was cruel.

231 Loke promised so well with his glozing tongue,     That the Aser at length let him go, And he sank in the earth, the dark rocks among,     Near the cold fountain,7 far below. He crept on his belly, as supple as eel,     The cracks in the hard granite through, Till he came where the Dwarfs stood hammering steel,     By the light of a furnace blue. I trow ’twas a goodly sight to see,     The Dwarfs with their aprons on, A hammering and smelting so busily,     Pure gold from the rough brown stone. Rock crystals from sand and hard flint they made,     Which, tinged with the rose-bud’s dye, They cast into rubies and carbuncles red,     And hid them in cracks hard by. They took them fresh violets all dripping with dew,     Dwarf women had pluck’d them, the morn, And stain’d with their juice the clear sapphires blue     King Dan8 in his crown since hath worn. 7 The cold fountain was Hvergemler, which existed before the creation. 8 Dan, surnamed Mikillati, or the magnificent, is supposed to have reigned in Denmark towards the latter end of the third century, and to have given his name to the Danish islands, which before had been called Ey-Gothland. He is said also to have introduced into Denmark the custom of burying the bodies of the dead, which until then, since the time of Odin, had been burned.

232 Then for emeralds, they searched out the brightest green,     Which the young spring meadow wears, And dropp’d round pearls, without flaw or stain,     From widows’ and maidens’ tears. And all round the cavern might plainly be shewn     Where Giants had once been at play; For the ground was with heaps of huge muscle-shells strewn,     And strange fish were mark’d in the clay. Here an Icthyosaurus stood out from the wall,     There monsters ne’er told of in story, Whilst hard by.the Nix in the waterfall,     Sang wildly the days of their glory. Here bones of the Mammoth and Mastodon,     And serpents with wings and with claws; The elephant’s tusks from the burning zone     Are small to the teeth in their jaws. When Loke to the Dwarfs had his errand made known,     In a trice for the work they were ready; Quoth Dvalin:9 “O, Loptur, it now shall be shown     That Dwarfs in their friendship are steady. “We both trace our line from the self-same stock;     What you ask shall be furnish’d with speed, For it ne’er shall be said, that the sons of the rock     Turn’d their backs on a kinsman in need.” Then they took them the skin of a large wild-boar,     The largest that they could find, 9 One of the principal of the Dwarfs.

233 And the bellows they blew till the furnace ’gan roar,     And the fire flamed on high for the wind. And they struck with their sledge-hammers stroke on stroke,     That the sparks from the skin flew on high; But never a word good nor bad spake Loke,     Though foul malice lurk’d in his eye. The thunderer far distant, with sorrow he thought     On all he’d engaged to obtain,10 And, as summer-breeze fickle, now anxiously sought     To render the Dwarf’s labour vain. Whilst the bellows plied Brokur, and Sindrig the hammer     And Thror,11 that the sparks flew on high, And the sides of the vaulted cave rang with the clamour,     Loke changed to a huge forest fly. And he sate him, all swelling with venom and spite,     On Brokur, the wrist just below; But the Dwarfs skin was thick, and he reck’d not the bite,     Nor once ceased the bellows to blow. And now, strange to tell, from the roaring fire     Came the golden-haired Gullinbörst, To serve as a charger the sun-god Freyr,     Sure of all wild boars this the first.12 10 Inconsistency is the predominant feature in the complicated, but not unreal character of Loke. 11 The names of Dwarfs. 13 This was no light praise, inasmuch as the boar Sehrimner was with good ground in high favour in Valhalla.

234 They took them pure gold from their secret store,     The piece ’twas but small in size, But ere’t had been long in the furnace roar,     ’Twas a jewel beyond all prize. A broad red ring all of wroughten gold;     As a snake with its tail in its head; And a garland of gems did the rim enfold,     Together with rare art laid. ’Twas solid and heavy, and wrought with care,     Thrice it pass’d through the white flames’ glow; A ring to produce, fit for Odin to wear,     No labour they spared I trow. They work’d it and turn’d it with wondrous skill,     Till they gave it the virtue rare, That each thrice third night from its rim there fell     Eight rings, as their parent fair. ’Twas the same with which Odin sanctified     God Baldur’s and Nanna’s faith,13 On his gentle bosom was Draupne14 laid     When their eyes were closed in death. Next they laid on the anvil a steel-bar cold,     They needed nor fire nor file, But their sledge hammers following, like thunder roll     And Sindrig sang Runes the while. When Loke now mark’d how the steel gat power,     And how warily out ’twas beat, 13 Vide Chapter x. 14 Draupner was the name of Odin’s famous ring.

235 (’Twas to make a new hammer for Auka-Thor)     He’d recourse once again to deceit. In a trice, of a Hornet the semblance he took,     Whilst in cadence fell blow on blow, In the leading Dwarf’s forehead his barbed sting he stuck,     That the blood in a stream down did flow. Then the Dwarf raised his hand to his brow, for the smart,     Ere the iron well out was beat, And they found that the haft by an inch was too short,     But to alter it then ’twas too late. Now a small elf came running with gold on his head,     Which he gave a dwarf-woman to spin, Who the metal like flax on her spinning-wheel laid,     Nor tarried her task to begin. So she span and span, and the gold thread ran     Into hair, though Loke thought it a pity: She span and sang to the sledge-hammer’s clang,     This strange, wild spinning-wheel ditty. “Henceforward her hair shall the tall Sif wear,     Hanging loose down her white neck behind; By no envious braid shall it captive be made,     But in native grace float in the wind. “No swain shall it view in the clear heaven’s blue,     But his heart in its toils shall be lost; No goddess, not e’en beauty’s faultless queen,15     Such long, glossy ringlets shall boast; 15 Freya.

236 “Tho’ they now seem dead, let them touch but her head,     Each hair shall the life-moisture fill, Nor shall malice nor spell henceforward prevail     Sif’s tresses to work aught of ill.” His object attained, Loke no longer remain’d     ’Neath the earth, but straight hied him to Thor, Who own’d than the hair, ne’er, sure, aught more fair     His eyes had e’er look’d on before. The Boar Freyr bestrode, and away proudly rode,     And Thor took the ringlets and hammer, To Valhalla they hied, where the Aser reside,     Mid of tilting and wassail the clamour. At a full, solemn Thing16—Thor gave Odin the ring,     And Loke his foul treachery pardon’d: But the pardon was vain—for his crimes soon again     Must do penance, the arch-sinner harden’d.                                                 Oehlenschläger. 16 Thing—any public meeting. The present triennial parliament of Norway is called Stor-thing, the great meeting.